“Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.’”
Genesis 22:14
A popular application question from the story of Abraham offering Isaac is whether or not you would have enough faith to offer your child, if God told you to. But I think this question is somewhat flawed. Because Abraham’s test was not merely the hardest test God could think of to determine how much faith Abraham had. It did not test the quantity of Abraham’s faith, but rather the basis of it. The task wasn’t designed to see whether or not Abraham would do something outrageous simply because God told him to. The task corresponded with God’s specific promises regarding Isaac and his decendants.
From Genesis chapter 12 up to this test found in chapter 22 God makes multiple promises to Abraham regarding his descendants. Abraham’s very name, which God gave him, means “father of many nations.” God confirmed his promises by covenant and He narrowed the channel through which He would fulfill His promise to only one son, Issac, the child of promise, a child by miracle born to Sarah in her old age. This promise, through which the whole world would be blessed, was not a vague promise open to interpretation but a repeated, refined, and specific promise to be fulfilled only through Isaac. The first version of God’s promise was less specific – and after years of waiting, Abram and Sarai came up with a plan to help God by providing themselves with a child through Hagar. But God does not need our help to fulfill His promises. and this resulting child of the flesh had was to have no part in fulfilling the promise. God has His own ways to fulfill His promises, and He accomplishes them by His own hand.
So when God told Abraham to offer Issac, the very one, the only one, through whom the promise would be filled, what was being tested was not so much Abraham’s willingness to do something outrageous, but rather Abraham’s faith in the truthfulness of God’s promises. It was God’s faithfulness to uphold His own promises by His own means – including raising the dead if needs be – that were in view in Abraham’s test.
So as Abraham walked on with Issac toward the mountain, he walked on in faith that God’s promises would be fulfilled, through Issac, even as he built an alter to sacrifice him. When Issac asked about the lamb for the burnt offering, Abraham responded “God will provide for Himself the lamb.” God’s promises fortified his faith – he knew God would uphold His promises, and this is what he clung to in faith. His faith anticipated a provision, though he did not know what, or how God would provide it. And during that perplexing period between promise and provision, Abraham walked on in faith.
And God did provide. He provided a ram stuck in a thicket in place of Isaac, and much more – He provided Christ, the Lamb of God in our place as a substitute sacrifice for our sins.
Abraham did not know how God would provide, but his faith anticipated it as it rested on God’s faithfulness to His own promises. But for us, we know how God’s promises are fulfilled, for they have been entirely established and fulfilled in the cross. The blessings promised to Abraham through Isaac and his descendants are fulfilled in Christ. Abraham’s faith rested on promises yet to be provided. Our faith rests on God’s promises completely fulfilled.
Yet, though Christ has been sacrificed and has fulfilled every promise, the final delivery, the consummation of kingdom in the eternal city of God, has been delayed. And so we like Abraham. must walk on, as Abraham did, in faith. Abraham walked on between promise and anticipated provision – anticipated yet mysterious and veiled. We walk on in faith between promise fulfilled and provision made, but delivery delayed. We have the best foundation of all – Christ and Him crucified – Christ and Him risen from the dead – mediator of our new covenant with God, through which all His promises are given to us in abundance. The mystery has been revealed, the provision provided therefore our faith is based on a much better promises because for us the promises have been filled already in Christ – yet we too must wait patiently in hope until we inherit the consummation of His promises.
Perhaps a better application question in response to the story of Abraham would be, “What outrageous acts of faith may we pursue as we bank on the firmness of all God’s promises fulfilled to us in Christ?” For our faith, like Abraham’s, is not mustered from within, but rather rests on the firm foundation of the promises of God in Christ. If Abraham believed God’s promises – yet to be provided – how much more should I trust Christ and bank on the promises made to me in Him? For He has already been sacrificed and His promises are already established. They are waiting for me – kept until the day.
O Lord, as I walk on, during my days of faith, let me set my hope fully on the grace to be given in Christ. Enable me to act with boldness in proportion to the certainty I have that all your promises are complete and finished in Christ, in the name of Jesus – my strong anchor – Amen.
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